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Rigging Material

Looking for some advice about what pound test to use for surf fishing rigs. I grew up fishing on a boat and have only been surf fishing for a few years, so having to worry about break-offs and working with heavy line, etc. is still pretty new to me. I tie my own rigs, generally in 15-20 lb. fluorocarbon. I tend to fish in close and don't really try to do any power casting and these have always done OK for me. The problem I'm having now is that my son is getting older and stronger and likes to really bomb it out there. He is starting to break off his rig more and more often when casting. I am using 20lb. test mono for the main line, connected to a 40 lb. test mono shock leader, which is then connected to a fluoro rig on the end. The knots are not failing; when there is a failure, it's coming a few inches below the knot connecting the rig to a barrel swivel(shock leader is on the other side of the swivel). We generally do not fish using heavy weights- 1-2 oz. is normal, every once in a while we go to 3 oz.

My thinking is that since it's the line that's failing rather than my knot system, I need to use heavier line for my rigs. Do I need to follow the 10-pounds-of-test-per-ounce-of-sinker-weight rule of thumb for the rig too?

Your rig line is a bit light.
The easiest thing it to use the light flouro for the hook snells/droppers, and use the 40 as the main, to the sinker.
That way you have stronger line to handle the cast, and you can still have the stealth advantages of flouro in clear water.

Drum: Rule of thumb as you noted is 10# test per oz. That should apply to your shock leader, not your main line. Most veteran long distance surfcasters fish with 20# test main lines or less-- often 15#, even 12#--with a shock leader to match sinker size. So, is your shock leader on your spool with at least 2 or 3 wraps? If not, then it's not really a shock leader. The only other things I can think of are possibly a bad batch of line or maybe you just need to tell Bam Bam to ease up a little.

Your rig line is a bit light.
The easiest thing it to use the light flouro for the hook snells/droppers, and use the 40 as the main, to the sinker.
That way you have stronger line to handle the cast, and you can still have the stealth advantages of flouro in clear water.

Probably a dumb question, but how do you do that? I've only ever tied bottom rigs out of one piece of whatever kind of line I'm using. I do two dropper loops for the hooks and tie a loop in the end of it to hold the sinker. Only way I can think of to do what I *think* you're suggesting would be to use a couple of 3-way swivels. I generally try to avoid a lot of metal in my rigs, though. I started out using the generic bottom pre-made bottom rigs you get from tackle shops/etc. and barely caught anything on them.

So, is your shock leader on your spool with at least 2 or 3 wraps? If not, then it's not really a shock leader. The only other things I can think of are possibly a bad batch of line or maybe you just need to tell Bam Bam to ease up a little.

Yes. I actually made it a fair bit longer than that this last time, it was probably 7-8 wraps around the spool. As far as Bam Bam goes, he caught an over slot drum yesterday on one of those long casts, and teenager logic being what it is, I'm pretty sure that means from now on that drum can *only* be caught with a long cast, and if you cast a little bit harder still, you'll definitely hook two citation drum at once.

Probably a dumb question, but how do you do that? I've only ever tied bottom rigs out of one piece of whatever kind of line I'm using. I do two dropper loops for the hooks and tie a loop in the end of it to hold the sinker. Only way I can think of to do what I *think* you're suggesting would be to use a couple of 3-way swivels. I generally try to avoid a lot of metal in my rigs, though. I started out using the generic bottom pre-made bottom rigs you get from tackle shops/etc. and barely caught anything on them.

Poor explanation on my part, not a dumb question at all.

I tied something up quickly out of heavy material, hopefully you can see in the pics what I mean.
I usually use only hooks and a sinker for hardware, but one of the snells had a bead on it, in case you have a question regarding seeing it in the pics.

Often I leave 4'-5' of extra shock leader and tie the appropriate loops in to hold the hooks and sinker, no rig to tie on.
I use a surgeon's loop for the sinker, and dropper loops for the hooks.
Lots of flexibility to change hooks, add beads, or just fish with one hook of the fish are really biting by removing one.
Often they will be taking the high or low hook, and I remove the one that is not getting any action.
A rig with one hook usually flies better than 2, something to keep in mind if distance is important.